University of Louisiana team building satellite to send into orbit

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Students take learning to a higher plane

LOUISIANA La. — In a small lab on the campus of UL, a team of electrical engineering students is bridging the gap between what they learn in the books and what they can learn from the stars.

Next October, the team hopes that the satellite it’s designing will hitch a ride into orbit on a disarmed Russian missile.

“It’s exciting,” said Wade Falcon, a graduate student studying telecommunications. “We’re the first in Louisiana to do this and only a handful in the South.”

Falcon and fellow telecommunications grad student Shawn Gennuso, project leader, are guiding a team of undergraduates working on the project as part of a design class. While the master’s students aren’t earning credit for their work, they plan to apply it to their theses. Both plan to graduate within the next year.

“This is for academic knowledge and having the experience of communicating with something in orbit,” Falcon said. “It also increases our knowledge of space.”

The satellite will be deployed into space as part of Russian company, International Space Company Kosmotras’ Dnepr space launch program. To comply with arms reduction treaties, the country had to decommission 150 intercontinental ballistic missiles. Instead of destroying the missiles, the Russian company converted them into launchers, offering private and educational institutions a shot at the stars.

The team will participate in the program as part of Stanford and California Polytechnic State University’s partner-ship with the Russian company.

For the project they’ve named CAPE — Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment — to become a reality, they still need a little financial help.

It’ll cost them about $40,000 to get on the launch. The team is nearly there with CapRock Communications donating $20,000 early on and another company, Global Data Systems has also made a pledge. Begneaud Manufacturing has offered to build the satellite’s exterior shell.

Much of their work has been unexpected — shaking hands and meeting potential donors, Gennuso said.

“We don’t mind meeting with CEOs of companies,” he laughed.

Gennuso said more donations are needed to actually build the satellite.

In January, alumnus Nick Pugh, a retiree from the telecom industry, introduced the idea to the department. Pugh, a HAM radio operator, had heard Stanford University professor Bob Twiggs introduce the launch program at a HAM operators convention.

“It just seemed natural that UL would get involved,” Pugh said.

Stanford had its first launch in 2002.

The CAPE team hopes to be on the third round of satellite launches, which is scheduled next October. They’re still waiting for the paperwork to be finalized.

By mid-spring, students began working on the project, building a prototype and designing it. They’re now on their third design.

The picosatellite is smaller than a breadbox and bigger than a Rubik’s cube. Everything that fits into the frame of the satellite must weigh less than a kilogram.

The major obstacle — “we don’t have a lot of weight or energy to work with,” Falcon said.

Right now, some of that weight will be from a small pin-camera mounted to the small box.

“We know it’s been done before, but we want it pointed to our satellite so we could see our satellite in space,” Falcon said.

The satellite’s “brain”will be mounted inside the framework. Solar panels will cover the framed cube.

Six undergraduates are working on the project with Gennuso and Falcon.

The newest team member, Cassandre “*” Dorcena, joined a week ago and has been hitting the books, reading up on signal processing.

“I spent last night reading everything again,” Dorcena said. “I must confess I didn’t understand everything.”

But no one expects anyone on the team to “understand everything,” Gennuso said. The whole team is working on a learning curve, he said.

They’ve flown mini-missions lifting their communications equipment on balloons — the store-bought kind — and also hitching rides on National Weather Service instruments.

“We’re doing simple things,” Falcon said. “We need to think how it will operate in space environment — zero gravity, wildly fluctuating temperatures.”

There are still other things to work out such as securing approval from the Federal Communications Commission for transmission space. The team will transmit over public air space.

“We hope this brings recognition to the university on a national scale,” Falcon said. “I don’t think anything before this has been offered. Students can easily jump in and work on it.”

Before this project, he and Gennuso had both thought of exploring careers in the space industry, but felt it was a hard field to crack.

“This project pushed me in the right direction,” Gennuso said.

Marsha Sills

Louisiana Advanced Picosatellite Experiment

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  UL satellite project set to launch Monday

The small, cube satellite project that UL engineering students have worked on for the past two years will be launched into space on Monday.

A few months ago, the satellite passed tests to be included in a payload with California Polytechnic State University. The university entered an agreement with a Russian space company to launch the research projects.

The Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment team plans to continue the satellite design and construction project.

Look for more information about Monday’s launch in this weekend’s edition of The Daily Advertiser.

For more information about CAPE, visit http://cape.louisiana.edu

The source of the story

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  At 1:46 a.m. Tuesday morning, a satellite that took two years for UL students to design and build will be launched into space.

The Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment is set to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The site is the same complex where the Earth’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, was launched 50 years ago.

The CAPE team will track the satellite Tuesday.

“The satellite will be passing overhead at about 11:45 a.m.,” said Jonathan Harrist, project manager and a UL electrical engineering student. “That will be the first time that we contact our satellite from the ground.”

The satellite is sharing payload space with California Polytechnic State University, which has an agreement with a Russian space company to launch research.

The team hopes to receive transmissions from the satellite — diagnostic data like telemetry, voltages, currents and temperatures.


Wade Falcon and Shawn Gennuso are two of the initial team members who got the project off the ground two years ago with the help of local telecommunications expert Nick Pugh.

Gennuso said when he and Falcon started the project with the first team, they didn’t expect a two-year mission was on their hands — but the team was starting from scratch. Pugh helped open up a lot of doors to other industry experts who could help with the project or help sponsor the team’s work, Gennuso said.

Harrist said the next team already has started on CAPE2.

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By the time you read this, a small satellite with Lafayette origins, but launched from a Soviet-era site in the Republic of Kazakhstan, could be streaking high overhead in a low earth orbit.

CAPE — or the Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment — is the state’s first satellite designed, built and maintained by students at any Louisiana university, according to a press release from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

The CAPE program started three years ago in the electrical and computer engineering department.

For three years, students from all sorts of disciplines, with help from professors and industry professionals, developed a small 10-centimeter cubed “picosatellite.” That is about 6.5 inches on each side.

The satellite is one of several being launched by universities across the country and world through a program run by California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University called Cubesat.

Cubesat allows for universities to launch their own, cost-effective picosatellites. This particular launch is being handled by a Russian company that launches satellites using converted intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The launch costs are in the tens of thousands to each participating university, rather than the tens of millions associated with a normal launch. Additionally, the satellites are constructed from standard components, which also brings down costs.

The purpose of the CAPE program is to provide students the opportunity to design and build satellite systems that are capable of performing experiments, the release said.

Just before noon today, the CAPE team will attempt to make contact with the satellite, the release said.
For more information, visit the Web at http://www.cubesat.org

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Technical problems led to the delay Tuesday of an early morning rocket launch that was to have put into orbit a small satellite built, designed and maintained by students from the University of Louisiana.

The Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment, or CAPE, was to have launched its satellite into orbit — along with several other university built satellites from around the world — using a converted intercontinental ballistic missile launched from a former Soviet facility in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The so-called Cubesat project is run by California Polytechnic State University as a low-cost way for universities to give students experience in satellite technology.

According to CAPE’s Web site, the company contracted to launch the missile, Kosmotros, called off the launch because of technical issues.

The Cubesat Web site announced Tuesday that the launch of the cube-shaped satellite — about 6.5 inches long on each side — had been rescheduled for April 17.

UL students from various disciplines have worked on the CAPE satellite for three years. They had planned to try to establish contact with the satellite Tuesday after it reached orbit.

For more information, visit the Web at http://ulcape.org and http://cubesat.calply.edu.

By KEVIN BLANCHARD
Advocate Acadiana bureau

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  MOSCOW, Russia, April 18, 2007 - Satnews Daily - A Dnepr-1 carrier rocket has successfully deployed 16 satellites into orbit in the largest cluster launch so far this year. The launch was the first for Dnepr since July 2006 when another Dnepr-1 crashed shortly after lifting off from Baikonur due to a premature first stage engine shutdown. The mishap destroyed its payload of 18 satellites that included a number of “CubeSats” or cube satellites.

The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said all 16 foreign satellites were put into orbit, and that control over them had been passed to its customers. It said Dnepr-1 delivered into orbit EgyptSat-1, six Saudi satellites (SaudiSat-3 and five SaudiComSats), seven CubeSats and a P-Pod.

The CubeSats are small satellites developed by U.S. university students under the CubeSat Program while another is Colombia’s first in-orbit satellite. The U.S. CubeSats were made by California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University's Space Systems Development Lab. The CubeSat Program creates launch opportunities for universities previously unable to access space. More than 60 universities and high schools are participating in the CubeSat Program.

Also launched were Egyptsat-1 or MisrSat 1 intended for remote sensing and scientific research. Saudi Arabia's SaudiSat-3 is photo imaging remote sensing satellite while SaudiComsat-4 to -7 are communications satellites. The SaudiComsats are LEO micro- satellites (12 kg) to be used for storing and forwarding communications. These satellites are among 24 satellites planned for launch into different orbits thereby covering large parts of the world.

One of the CubeSats, CAPE-1, was developed by the University of Louisiana (UL).

CAPE-1 (Cajun Advanced Picosat Experiment) intends to gather data and transmit this data to a ground station at the UL campus. A team of UL engineering students will run experiments and maintain the satellite while in orbit. CAPE-1 is UL’s first in-orbit satellite.

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LOUISIANA La. — A group of students, former students and professors stood quietly in an electronics-filled room Tuesday, intently listening for contact from a 4-inch cubed satellite hurtling miles overhead.

Those gathered comprised the Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment, or CAPE, and the small cubed bundle of electronics is CAPE1 — a small satellite designed and built by students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

The project is part of a program called Cubesat, which allows universities to cheaply launch satellites, something that gives students world class experience, said professor Robert Henry, head of the Department of Electric and Computer Engineering.

CAPE1 is the first satellite designed, built and launched by a Louisiana university — and one of the first in the Southern region, Henry said.

CAPE1 was launched early Tuesday along with six other university satellites from a site in Kazahkstan using a modified former intercontinental ballistic missile.

CAPE team members were waiting Tuesday morning to make contact with CAPE1 while it passed from the North Pole south across North America — where it would be sliding into range of the antenna set up on top of Madison Hall on the ULL campus.

Earlier Tuesday, amateur radio operators in Europe had picked up CAPE1’s beacon as it flew over their area.

With CAPE1 approaching, the team gathered around the computer screens while a team member fiddled with the dials of a radio receiver, searching the frequency for the tell-tale beeps of CAPE1.

For a few minutes, the radio picked up only static, hiss and whines.

Conversations died down while the team waited, fiddled with the radio and waited some more.

Finally, a steady stream of beeps and chirps broke through the static.

“There it is,” Henry said. The team exchanged handshakes and high-fives.

The beeps were Morse code that let everyone listening know the satellite’s name and other technical information such as temperature, Henry said.

A second transmission sends data more quickly — more like a dial-up modem — which allows for more detailed technical data to be sent, Henry said.

CAPE1’s signals told the team that its solar panels were charging its onboard batteries, which is good news, Henry said.

CAPE1’s true mission is providing experience — not many engineering students get the real-world experience of building and launching a satellite, Henry said.

In the future, the CAPE team could build a satellite that does more than transmit information about itself — perhaps relaying data from sensors in the Gulf of Mexico, Henry said.

By KEVIN BLANCHARD
Advocate Acadiana bureau

[El Sidonio]

This really pumps me up. I'm glad to see a project of this type and magnitude go well for UL. Aside from all the obvious bonuses, I see two extra bonuses:

1.) The main article (first one listed in this thread) uses our preferred name/abbreviation

2.) The article in the Advocate talking about how we're the first Louisiana university to do such a thing. I guess that makes us the "flag-satellite" university, right?

Peace and God Bless

[CajunAmos]

I work with a couple of the guys that worked on this project. Since you're not guaranteed at what altitude the satellite was deployed, they'll have to collect data to determine its ultimate altitude. There are similar satellites that have lasted as long as 20 years, so this may be an ongoing project at the university. I understand that they will continue to develop newer units in the future.

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I know we are all very anxious about UL, and the often used Lafayette, ULL, and other non acceptable deviations. I caution you all to remember this is not going to be a short war, but a long and protracted one, a war we are winning one battle and skirmish at a time.

Some may think we are intrenched as UL Lafayette in sports, yet we see Louisiana and UL being used more and more by those out of the state. In academics we see the change more and more frequently. UL has now gone global, http://www.satnews.com/stories2007/4309/ with the launch of a satellite.

The point of this particular post is to remind everyone to keep up the good fight, but remember you get more flies with sugar than vinegar. In other words let's not insult people who do not have an issue with the name and are only ignorant or to lazy to change their habits. Habits will change gradually.

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  From outer space, the distance between Lafayette and Kazakhstan probably does not seem that great. Even back on Earth, technology is collapsing the distance between these two communities, as we were reminded by the recent launch of CAPE1, a small satellite designed and built by students at the University of Louisiana.

CAPE stands for Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment. The project is part of Cubesat, which allows universities to cheaply launch satellites, an invaluable experience for students.

CAPE1, recently launched along with six other university satellites from a site in Kazakhstan, is the first satellite designed, built and launched by a Louisiana university. The satellite is one of the first of its kind in the South, said Professor Robert Henry, who heads UL’s Department of Electric and Computer Engineering.

CAPE1 was launched using a modified former intercontinental ballistic missile. ULL students and faculty already have received messages from the satellite, a kind of demonstration project to give students experience in satellite science. In the future, the CAPE team could build a satellite that does more than transmit information about itself, Henry said.

We salute ULL faculty members and students who participated in the CAPE project. Their accomplishment promises to advance ULL’s reputation for applied science, and that’s good news for everyone in Louisiana.

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Advocate

[CajunSaint]

THE university of louisiana: propelling america into the 21st century. geaux cajuns!